ARRIVAL LOG 009

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Tokyo
WHEN: October 10
WHAT: The ninth arrival
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Coercion and loss of autonomy. Further notes at end of log.

> ARRIVAL LOG #009

Awareness comes to you in blurred snatches, cloudy fragments of sound and light, color, sensation. Hazy and difficult to grasp on to, but slowly aligning into focus. A series of regular, rhythmic beeps. A sharp, cold breeze that blisters your cheeks as you walk through a thick, cold snow. That soon fades, replaced with warmth. A medicinal, astringent smell. The sensation of movement, a low hum and accompanying vibration under you. Your eyes are heavy, hard to keep open, but in the glimpses between slow, dark blinks you see four people in black body armor seated opposite you, as well as a man in dark gray scrubs.

You realize there are others next to you. All of you in heavy winter coats, water-resistant pants, and snow boots, hair recently cut but at various stages of growth and haphazardly tucked under warm winter hats. You're all restrained by straps across your chests, arms, feet, holding you to the bench under you. To your left, an armored interior door, two more people visible, though due to the storm there's hardly any visibility through the windshield. You try to open your mouth to speak, but it's as if your tongue is coated in tar, and you manage nothing more than an empty parting of lips.

The vehicle stops, landing gingerly in the snow. The guard opposite you stands and comes to unbuckle you from the bench, helping you to your feet. Your limbs feel wooden and heavy, slow to move. One guard opens the back of the vehicle, there's the sound of a high howling wind and that same blast of cold that signals at being somewhere else, combined with a sea of white as far as your eyes can see. The nurse moves to stand at the back, checking each passenger over one by one just before they're helped out of the vehicle, quick and methodical. He doesn't climb out after you, moving to sit as the last passenger is unloaded.

The guards keep their heads down. Their actions are quick, firm, but not entirely unkind. Once all the passengers are out, most of them climb back into the vehicle and close the doors. One stays behind, pointing you and whoever else is near you to one of the closest buildings. "In there," he orders, just before he interfaces with the doors and they slide open. "Stick around until your buddies come to find you. You'll know who they are."

Snow comes up to your knees on this city street, and you're left with no idea of where you are or why you've been brought here. But you'll feel compelled to move toward the building that the guard pointed at and step inside. In fact, you'll have no choice but to follow that order. Once you're in, he closes the doors behind you and hops back inside the vehicle. The engine powers up again, and then the large truck lifts up slowly and flies off.

Inside you'll find the lobby of what seems to be a corporate building. After taking note of the fact that there's a small group of other people dressed in similar clothes who are also confused about how they got to this place, you'll be able to warm up and try to figure out what's going on. For now, it's impossible to exit the building. The same door you came in won't open no matter what you try, so you're all stuck for now.

But don't worry, help is on the way.

◉ Though entirely capable of independent action and thought, new characters will find themselves completely, unquestioningly compliant to any verbal statement which could be taken as a command or request.

> WATANABE CORPORATE BUILDING

The message from El comes the same as usual: insistent, not waiting for any active attempt to open it. Scrolling within your vision as if being written while you're reading it.

I know you all were wondering what would happen if we had a batch of new arrivals while you're all out on your little field trip, but it turns out that they've all landed in New Tokyo too. They're holed up in the lobby of a corporate building, so make your way over and escort them to the PRESERVE dorms. Try for a warm welcome, okay?

At the lobby where the new arrivals have been dumped, they'll find that there's a check-in desk which is currently unmanned, and on the wall behind it there's a logo mounted which reads "Watanabe Corporation." There's no one to be found here and no one to greet them. The good news is that the building is heated, meaning that those heavy coats can probably come off for now. Further in on the ground floor, there's a set of six elevators that presumably lead up to the many floors of the skyscraper, but they're non-functional, and there don't seem to be any accessible stairs either.

For now, all the newcomers can do is make use of the comfortable chairs in the lobby and commiserate among themselves about what's going on. There's a water cooler and some cups to make use of as well, all of it made of biodegradable material, but there's only so much. Try to share.

The Displaced who received a message from El will have also received a GPS pin showing the location of the new arrivals. At this point, the promised supplies (which includes clothing appropriate for the harsh weather, along with additional foodstuffs to stock the dormitory kitchen) have come in compliments of PRESERVE. Everyone will be allowed to leave the dorms where they've been cooped up for the last two days to explore the city or go help out the newcomers.

Getting around a city covered in snow is a little more of a challenge. Going by foot is an option, although most of the streets haven't been shoveled yet and it will be slow-going. It's more feasible to make use of a hover bike. There's a garage connected to the dormitory that's stocked with twenty-some bikes. While they don't function perfectly well over snow and reckless driving with such poor visibility could easily lead to a cold and painful crash, it has to beat walking. If you don't how to drive, guess you'll have to find someone who does. (The bikes can seat two.)

> PRESERVE DORMS

With the help of the current Displaced, the new arrivals will be brought back to a dormitory building managed by PRESERVE. PRESERVE is a world-wide relief organization that focuses on environmental conservation and disaster relief. While a good number of Morningstar agents have joined up with PRESERVE thanks to their charitable activities and because they're UN sanctioned, it is not an organization that's affiliated with Morningstar. As a group, they are entirely pacifistic in their ideals – they believe the world can be saved through being conscientious.

The Displaced are here because they agreed to help PRESERVE with a very different disaster, but that's now a very severe and uncommon snowstorm. This is where they're all staying during the trip, so while this isn't anything close to home, it will have to do for now. A representative from PRESERVE by the name of Nico has been hanging around the dorms, ready to answer any questions from any of the Displaced, new or old. Nico is also a member of Morningstar, as well, though she'll be very hush hush about this fact when around her fellow PRESERVE members.

Newbies will be allowed to pick out additional clothes and gear from a cache of supplies (there's coats, thermal underwear, boots, scarves, hats, gloves, and anything else that would be needed to survive the intense cold), and they'll also need to figure out which of the rooms has an opening where they can sleep. It's four people to a room, with the use of two sets of bunk beds, and space was already limited before the newcomers got added to the mix. Hopefully peace can be maintained and there won't be too much fighting over who gets top bunk.

Other than the rooms, the dorm building has a kitchen, a large common area with comfortable couches and chairs, communal bathrooms, and a small, modestly stocked infirmary. There's also a viewing room which is a large space furnished with bean bag chairs and other comfortable things to lounge on, and a large blank wall that's meant to be used for group viewings of movies, shows, etc. This requires one character to "throw out" their feed from their neural implant onto the wall, and anyone who wanted to watch with them would need to sync up with their ID to watch along. Anyone not synced would just see a blank wall – and unfortunately, that does include anyone new.

There are other PRESERVE volunteers staying in this dormitory and milling about. Many of them already had supplies, so they've been in and out since the Displaced arrived.

◉ The drugs making new characters compliant will remain in their systems for a few hours after their arrival at the dorms before finally beginning to fade. They will be gone entirely after a night's rest. In the meantime, they may want to be careful of what others say to them.

◉ New characters will be given rudimentary access to the network on arrival to the dorms, but will not have their ID set up yet. They will be able to make posts and replies, but their messages will be anonymous and they do not have inboxes yet.

◉ Normally, new characters are confined to a safehouse for 4 days before they can leave and explore the city. Given that these newbies have arrived under unorthodox circumstances, that won't be the case for them. They'll be able to come and go from the dorms, but given that it's a frozen tundra outside, they'll at least want to prep first. At some point during this adjustment period, you can assume that El will contact them and work on setting up their IDs. There is no law enforcement around in these conditions, so anyone wanting to head out can.

◉ New characters won't be able to abscond to somewhere else in the world, as a lack of ID means no tickets or travel papers.

◉ While most businesses in New Tokyo are shuttered, a few convenience shops remain open near PRESERVE's dormitories because they know they can make money off volunteers. New characters won't have any means of paying, as they don't have a registered ID. They'll have to see if a kind soul will spot them the credits if they want something.

> RELIEF EFFORTS

With the new arrivals successfully recovered and supplies delivered to keep everyone warm in the harsh conditions, it's time to set out and fulfill the reason for everyone being here: to offer support and relief to the population affected by the harrowing storm. Nico will provide the Displaced with the information they need to get their boots on the ground and make a difference. There are a number of ways that she'll suggest to help out.

◉ First, she'll deliver a word of caution. While New Tokyo is a large, entirely steel city that runs deep underwater, most of its citizens have evacuated to the upper levels and are huddling down in various locations hoping for some relief. Heading deeper in the large city structure could prove dangerous. In this emergency, heating is centralized on the upper levels of the entire man-made metal city structure, while the lower levels are frigid and dangerous at this time. The only heating revolves around the trains coming and going, and their schedules have been largely delayed thanks to the storm.

◉ Delivering food, clothing, and medical supplies. With power cut off from most homes and all of the citizens having been cautioned to stay indoors and conserve warmth, there are a lot of people running low on food stores. Those who live in impoverished areas are even worse off, with little insulation in their homes. The threat of some people freezing to death is real, so getting the needed supplies to those people could allow them to hold out until power is restored or the storm has passed. Nico encourages people to travel to these neighborhoods in pairs for safety reasons, and again, the hover bikes will come in handy here. Supplies can be carried in heavy-duty backpacks or in a side-car attached to the bike, and all of this is provided by PRESERVE.

◉ Shoveling snow. For those of the Displaced who aren't opposed to grueling manual labor, one of the largest concerns is getting the major streets cleared of snow so that transportation is easier. The train lines also need to be cleared off so public transit can eventually be reinstated, so assuming they're not afraid of heights, the Displaced will get access onto the train tracks that crisscross above the city to clear the snow off. Some homes are also completely snowed in, trapping the residents inside, so those will also need to be cleared. There's no shortage of work to be done. PRESERVE will provide the snow shovels, and they have access to a single snow plow that can be used in shifts by anyone who's got a driver's license (also found in the garage). Nico will also hand out hot packs. Everyone should be bundling up, but in the event that someone takes a fall or ends up with too much snow-to-skin contact, the hot packs will help stave off the cold and prevent frostbite.

◉ Missing persons. There have been multiple reports of missing persons sent into PRESERVE, and the Displaced will be assigned particular people to go look for, if they let Nico know they're interested in this task. She'll give them the description of the missing person and their last known location. This could be anywhere within the city of New Tokyo -- a shopping district, a residential area, a park, etc. If they manage to find the missing person, they'll be instructed to take them to the closest PRESERVE relief center so they can receive medical attention and be reunited with their families.

◉ Restoring power. Turbines are jammed due to ice build-up past any conceivable norm, and need to be carefully thawed and given a jump from a backup battery pack. This is a highly dangerous, but necessary endeavor. The turbines are located offshore due to the fact that New Tokyo primarily generates energy through tidal power. When working correctly, these offshore turbines then feed energy into local sources within the city. For those who have any sort of experience with electrical work, they'll be directed toward areas in the city where covered electrical boards interconnected with the city's branched power source have been buried. They'll need to be cleared of snow, checked, reconnected, and made ready for when the turbines begin to flow again.

While the new arrivals are welcome to help out with these relief efforts if they wish, it certainly won't be expected, given that they're still getting adjusted to everything that's going on. They're allowed to stay in the warm confines of the dormitory building until everyone returns to New Amsterdam, if that's what they would prefer. As for the rest of the Displaced, there will be some expectation that they're going to contribute. That's the whole reason they came all this way, isn't it? And it's not like Nico knows that some of them didn't actually sign up for this.

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Welcome to Meadowlark, newbies! You're now free to post to the network and logs comms. To reiterate, your characters will have no IDs or inboxes until October 14th (OOCly, April 25th). All posts they make on the network until that point will be anonymous. During this time it's expected they'll have gotten a good idea of their new situation from their fellow characters, and will have discussed their background and job potentials with El in order for their false IDs to be set up.

If you have any questions or ideas about how you'd like to get your character involved in the world, please head over to the plot engagement post and drop us a comment! For questions specific to this log, there is a thread below.

Please check out our April/May calendar rundown for a look at things happening this month, as well as some additional notes from the mods.

As a reminder, AC for new characters accepted in April will be 10 comments across 2-4 threads, while current characters will need to provide the full AC of 20 comments across 2-4 threads. AC will be posted on May 1 and close on May 8 at midnight UTC. If you do not reply to AC, you will be considered idled and dropped from the game. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[sandu]

[ how badly did he want to eradicate him? very.

nobody would ever - not truly - understand the feelings that went though his head after the nightless city, with the bodies of his sister, his brother in law laid out in the hall of the koi tower, the darkened confused recess of his mind that replayed the scene over and over - ( you said, you said you had it all under control, you promised ) - it isn't something that he talks about. the memory of that darkened hall, of the smell of incense so strong it could choke the life out of anyone who stepped in, is something that sits even deeper than what he feels for wei wuxian, deeper than betrayal, deeper than rage. it's a river that runs through him, a well of memories steeped in blood, of corpses piled high.

he hadn't cared then - he hadn't cared to ask, too blinded in his need for revenge against the wen-dogs that laid waste to their home. no questions asked and none answered was an easy way out of the mess; by feigning ignorance he was comfortable in the knowledge, even though looking back on it now, his hands are just as dirty as wei wuxian's, steeped in grave-dirt and blood.

searching out for anyone with even the whisper of accusations against them, he had wanted to hear them scream in wei wuxian's voice, see his face raised in supplication, maybe, to hear the sizzle of flesh with each thundering roar and crack of zidian, to strew his blood across the steps of their ancestral hall - a sacrifice, an atonement, seeking some sort of forgiveness for his failures - but that has all that's really been, his own sense of inferiority, his own faults and shortcomings that has brought things to a head like this. what a fool he had been, seeking revenge and thinking himself truly righteous, when all this time he had only been playing within the palm of his hand, unable to move even a step outside it. thinking himself free, when all that was within his strength was to drive his shixiong to his death, to demand his life to fulfill his own selfish needs.

what has changed now? still the same. cycles within cycles, he calls it, freely offering his life up to jiang cheng once more without barely a flinch in his expression, like he is someone who deserves such a thing.

jiang cheng's expression crumbles, wavers like the day they had to send his dogs away, like the day they watched the nine petal banners crumble in soft ashes over the waters of the lotus pier, like the time he held onto his sister's body like he couldn't bear to let go; he looks at the other drawing away, wrapping his coat back around him, and for a moment it looks like regret, opening his mouth half-parted as if to say something - but nobody else knew him as well as wei wuxian, nobody else knows, how volatile his temper was. nobody else quite knows how to drive the knife deeper in each other better than themselves. ]

I'm done letting you play the hero, again.

[ there is hardly any venom in those words, though his eyes are full of it, wavering with tears that he would not let himself shed.

he won't apologise; he won't thank wei wuxian; there's nothing left to say. ]

[laozu]

[ jiang cheng hates him, there's no doubt within him that will allow him to overlook that.

the disgust that his once-brother feels towards him is the result of wei wuxian's own hand, bloodied by the countless lives he had personally taken during the sunshot campaign, poisoned and putrid with the mantle he had slipped onto his shoulders when he had decided to cultivate on such a precarious and volatile path. it was with those hands, already stained and dirtied, that he had killed them - for even wen ning was an extension of his choices, and wei wuxian was no longer an entirely foolhardy child who thought himself so capable, so prepared. there are times when he thinks back upon those days, falling short of envisioning the faces of the two innocents, caught in the crossfire of his madness.

some nights, when it's silent and still, he reflects. when he cannot fill the void with the sound of his rampant, silly chatter and leap from thought to thought with the swiftness of someone who knows that - if he stops, he will sink and if he sinks, he will drown - he thinks of the him from thirteen years prior and despises him so much that he wishes jiang cheng had been able to eradicate him. perhaps then he could have found some sort of solace, some sort of rest. wei wuxian, in those moments, wishes he had died long before his shijie, long before jin ling's father, perhaps on the very day he had been thrown into the burial mounds. right now, in jiang cheng's presence, seeing himself

( no, not even himself; this face and this body were not his. it was the blood of the jin, so painfully similar in slender limbs and delicate features to jin ling and his father that he wonders if jiang cheng would feel better if he were able to break his nose, to cause some sort of damage that would separate him from the face of his only family. )

seeing himself-as-he-existed-now reflected in jiang cheng's narrowed, burning eyes - right now? he understands the man's disgust, and blames him not even a little for it. ]

What's heroic about this? Have you forgotten who I am?

[ a hero does not consider themselves such; wei wuxian has never considered himself one, he has played the villain, the monster, become the madman and the fallen, graceless thing surrounded by the dead and the dark miasma that twisted inside of him, warped the kindness he had possessed into paranoia. there was nothing, absolutely nothing, heroic about that man who he was, nor the man that he was now. ]

I'm just being selfish. I'm going to be a big name here, I'll get to lead a new life - who would want two sour-faced fellows from their past traipsing all over that, hm? [ hate him, hate him. hate him so much that you agree to it, jiang cheng; you don't want to be here, he's begging that of you. you want to be home, with jin ling and those who need you. wei wuxian, once, had needed you - and there was a reason he had cut that out of himself, why he still yearned for it. ] Just think, if you'd like to - you could be home and forgetting me soon, both of you.

[sandu]

Of course. [ he knows who he is; he knows who he had been, and this man who stands in front of jiang cheng is not he; just a stranger. ] Of course I know who you are.

The supreme lord of evil, the patriarch of YiLing.

[ every word, every dissonant syllable drips with venom, with utter poisonous hatred behind the ironic title. and with it, jiang cheng feels himself burn away just like that, every inch of his body crawling with hate that has nowhere to go but out, lest it eat away any more at his already ravaged ragged insides. he feels tired, broken down, just a shell of who he had been - like a dried up riverbed gaping open under the harsh unforgiving brightness of the sun, so does his hatred show through the cracks, ugly and dissonant upon his features.

a warm and blistering thing they are, the sun and wei wuxian both; in their boyhood, the light felt to him as if dappled in the spring breeze upon his face, the thing that chased away the gloom of the winter's night - now it bears down on him like a blazing midday in summer, like a forest wildfire, unrelenting and deadly.

just where have things started going wrong? there is no use wondering of things that could have, might have been; they stand apart, separated by a gap of thirteen years, of words said and unsaid, the distance between them strewn with regrets as many as fallen petals in a sudden gust of frozen frosted wind.

a tear falls, catching itself like dew upon his lashes, but that is it; that is all he will ever permit himself to shed for wei wuxian, his brother, the faded memories of one who called himself that. that person is no more. ]

I'll get myself back well enough on my own. [ forgive and forget, forget, forget, but jiang cheng knows better than anyone else that there will be none of that. for as long as he breathes, for as long as the golden core remains within him, it will be a reminder, a memento, a blight. ] You and that second young master of Gusu can just do what you've been doing, go fuck yourselves. You think you can just go and pretend you're a new person now - I haven't any to do with it.

[ nothing he does ever really mattered, always left a step behind, always left behind.

he sucks in a shaky breath, the exhale stuttering out unsteady, burning it's way out of him in a burst of hot blistering air, drying up whatever else he can say. jiang cheng turns away, gathering his coat about him, and heads for the open doorway, the snowstorm raging outside in a chaotic mess of frozen shards of ice. even then, there is no way to quench the fire in his chest. ]

[laozu]

[ it shouldn't surprise him, that jiang cheng is brought to tears. he was that sort of boy, of course he would be that sort of man - the kind that boiled and boiled, and once brought to the edge, spilled over it. he'd known him when he was overworked and tired, madam yu's taskmastering of her heir pushing jiang cheng to his physical and emotional limitations - and wei wuxian would creep into his room with a smile and a shirt full of pilfered persimmons to share with him, bit by bit. jiang cheng had always cried when he was torn asunder, and the last time he had shed more than a single tear had been

a night, a long time ago, in the rain. ]

Sect leader.

[ it's a soft goodbye, an echo of a time when he had been beholden to yunmeng as a wild animal might have been kept by a wealthy landlord. he doesn't understand what jiang cheng means, when he refers to lan wangji in such a way - he wants to call out to him, to demand he take back his anger and place it squarely on the shoulders of the only one who deserves his ire. lan wangji has nothing to do with the things that were between them; but he doesn't, because jiang cheng is already gone. his footsteps are already faded and again, wei wuxian has missed any chance he might have had with the man who was once his brother-in-bond. ]